The Reality of Romanism

The Riddleblog ^ | May 10, 2007 | Kim Riddlebarger

[Gamecock]

Reading Francis Beckwith's interview with David Neff in Christianity Today, reminded me of how idyllic the Roman church can seem in the minds of those who embrace it (Click here: Q&A: Francis Beckwith | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction).

But then this news report appeared today which gives a much different picture of the supposed glories of Romanism (Click here: Pope to canonize first Brazilian saint - Yahoo! News).

All discussion of justification, the authority of Scripture, and reciting the Creed aside, the Pope is heading to Brazil to canonize Antonio de Sant'Anna Galvao, a Franciscan monk who is credited with 5000 miraculous healings. Over 1 million people are expected to be in attendance. The healings supposedly come as a result of swallowing rice paper pills prepared by the monk over two hundred years ago. According to the AP news report . . .

"The Vatican has officially certified the medical cases of two Brazilian women as divinely inspired miracles that justify the sainthood of Galvao. Both of these women spoke of their faith with The Associated Press, claiming that their children would not be alive today were it not for the tiny rice-paper pills that Friar Galvao handed out two centuries ago.

Although the friar died in 1822, the tradition is carried on by Brazilian nuns who toil in the Sao Paulo monastery where Galvao is buried, preparing thousands of the Tic Tac-sized pills distributed free each day to people seeking cures for all manner of ailments. Each one is inscribed with a prayer in Latin: `After birth, the Virgin remained intact. Mother of God, intercede on our behalf.'

Sandra Grossi de Almeida, 37, is one such believer. She had a uterine malformation that should have made it impossible for her to carry a child for more than four months. But in 1999, after taking the pills, she gave birth to Enzo, now 7. `I have faith," Grossi said, pointing to her son. I believe in God, and the proof is right here.'

Nearly 10 years before that, Daniela Cristina da Silva, then 4 years old, entered a coma and suffered a heart attack after liver and kidney complications from hepatitis A. `The doctors told me to pray because only a miracle could save her,' Daniela's mother Jacyra said recently. `My sister sneaked into the intensive care unit and forced my daughter to swallow Friar Galvao's pills.'"

So, if you "return home" to Rome, you get the whole ball of wax, including the beatification of saints who give out Tic-Tac size rice-paper pills which supposedly heal. And Pope Benedict XVI will be there to bless it all.

By the way, confessional Protestants affirm the historical evangelical doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone, and the full authority of Scripture. And yes, we even recite the Creed every Lord's Day and we use a biblical-text based liturgy which is quite similar to that described by Justin Martyr in the second century.

Too bad Dr. Beckwith didn't consider a confessional Protestant church before embracing Romanism. Now he's stuck with Antonio de Sant'Anna Galvao and his rice-paper healing pills.

[Claud]

No one said he doesn’t exist...the details of his life as they’ve come down to us are perhaps legendary and probably very confused. But devotion to him is very old (back to the 500s), and he almost certainly was a real martyr of the third century.

We’re not sure if Christ was born on the 25th of December. Yet still we keep the feast. A saint’s feast day is a commemoration, and as such, it can be moved around, suppressed, restored, or rendered greater or lesser importance as popular piety dictates.

[IrishCatholic]

Part of my post:
“For there is nothing but the same hatred in your hearts as that of a Jihadist.”

Your response:
“That’s the buzz word these days. Talk about how homosexuality is wrong and you hate homosexuals. Talk about how illegal immigrants are wrong for coming into the country illegally and you hate them. Talk about people who shouldn’t have abortions and you hate them. Everyone who don’t agree with your moral and theological views are hateful. I was just talking about this on another post.

It’s very nice for sound bites.”

Uhm...no. Nice try though. If you post a thread simply to attack the Catholic Church and for no other reason, then call your buddies to join in, my observation is accurate. This was a hit piece pure and simple and the hatred is the same. Your attempt to equate this smear with the opposition to homosexuality, immigration, abortion etc. isn’t just weak, it is disingenuous.

I will say a prayer for you and the others that you stop disobeying Christ and come home.

[marsh_of_mists]

This sort of argument always gets me.

If you can believe that God Himself incarnated as a man on Earth, born of a virgin, made the lame walk and the blind see, turned water into wine, died and rose from the dead, and ascended bodily into Heaven, that through His apostles He cast out demons and raised the dead, through Moses parted the Red Sea, had people look upon the brass statue of a serpent to heal snakebites, destroyed a city at the blow of trumpets, turned water into blood, made Aaron's rod blossom, etc. etc. etc.....then why is it so impossible to concieve that He might also work a miracle through slips of paper with prayers written by pious believer?

Give us a break. The fact that the writer find "paper pills" so impossibly ridiculous that it alone is supposed to prove the falsehood of the [choose one: Catholic/Roman Catholic/Roman/Romanist/One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic/Holy Mother/Evil, Idolatrous, Mary-Worshipping, Bead-Counting, Halibut-Munching] Church and not all the above listed Biblical miracles only reveals her modernistic cultural biases. At least atheists just go ahead and believe the whole thing is ridiculous, primitive superstition.

[marsh_of_mists]

And the Orthodox revere St. Christopher, as well.

They don't care about the Orthodox; Roman Catholics are the only ones they worry about. Ever seen any Protestant threads about the falseness and idolatry of Judaism or Hinduism? How come when one poster on this thread, who was criticizing the Catholic Church, said that they weren't even Christian, they heard no response other than a wink, nod, and pat on the back? Are Catholics they only unsaved ones anymore?

[NathanR]

The name you are searching for is Latter Day Saints, or LDS for short.

[RobbyS]

You may recall that in Acts, people in Ephesus sought healing by touching articles of clothing belonging to Paul. Protestants are obsessed by the idea that divine power must be conveyed from a distance. But even hearing the sound of a person’s voice is a physical event. I can “touch” your eardrums by creating (with my bodily organs) sound waves that touch your ear drums.

[RobbyS]

Besides the point if this is a matter of interpreting a text that both sides hold sacred,

[RobbyS]

The Church doesn’t say that the Old Testament is mythological.

[George W. Bush]

Claud is correct. Rome has "acknowledged" nothing of the sort. And the Orthodox revere St. Christopher, as well.

But somehow it doesn't sound like the same Saint Christopher!

Saint Christopher - Wikipedia:

The story of this saint's life is astoundingly different, depending upon whether one consults Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox church sources.

Roman Catholic view

One legend states that Christopher was a very tall and physical Roman man, originally named Reprobus, who was referred to as a giant by those who knew him, and vowed to serve Jesus and became a Christian. Other sources say his name was Offero, and that he was born in Canaan.^[1] He sought out a Christian hermit to inquire as to how he could better serve Jesus. The hermit directed him to a path with a dangerous crossing point at a swift river, and suggested that the man's great size and strength made him a good candidate to assist people in crossing the river. Reprobus began ferrying people across the river on his back.

One day, a small child approached the river and asked to be carried across. Reprobus began to comply, only to discover that the small boy was far heavier than any other passenger he had taken. The child revealed that he was in fact Jesus Christ, and that his unusual weight was due to the fact that he bore the sins of the world. The boy then baptized Reprobus in the river, and he acquired his new name, Christopher, which is Greek for "Christ-carrier" (from Christos, "Christ", and pherein, meaning "to bear").^[1]

The child then told Christopher to plant his staff in the ground. The staff miraculously bloomed into a fruit-bearing tree. This miracle converted many. Enraged at these conversions, a local king (or by some accounts, the emperor Decius) had Christopher imprisoned, where after cruel tortures he was beheaded as a martyr.

Eastern Orthodox view

During the reign of the Emperor Decius, a man named Reprebus (or Reprobus) was captured in combat against tribes to the west of Egypt and was assigned to the numerus Marmaritarum or "Unit of the Marmaritae", which suggests an otherwise-unidentified "Marmaritae" Berber tribe of Cyrenaica. He was of enormous size and terrifying demeanor, being a cannibal with cynocephaly (the head of a dog instead of a man), like all the Marmaritae. Traditional Orthodox iconography depicts him as literally dog-headed. Regardless, Reprebus accepted baptism and began to preach the faith. Eventually, the governor of Antioch (or in some versions, the Emperor himself) decreed that Reprebus was to be executed for his faith. He miraculously survived many attempts at execution, eventually permitting himself to be martyred after converting multitudes. His body was then taken back to Alexandria by Peter of Attalia.

So do you pray to the papoose-Christopher or the doghead-Christopher for travel safety?

Tell me, how do you people keep from howling with laughter when they teach this stuff? I've read Grimm's fairy tales with more realistic detail and elements of historical authenticity.

I'm still wondering why little papoose-Jesus let Saint Christopher get executed when he didn't change the staff into a fruit tree, but (supposedly) it was Jesus who did the deed. Are there other places in the Bible where Jesus let his followers take the blame and get executed for his actions? I don't remember any. All I recall is Christ Himself, a perfect and one-time sacrifice for the sins of men.

[RobbyS]

And doctors who hand out placebos? It is superstition that they sometimes work, and by a process unknown to science?

[RobbyS]

All cultures have legendary figures. Glad you had a good laugh except remember that the unbelievers think that the notion of a sacrificed God-man is equally ridiculous.

[Campion]

Are there other places in the Bible where Jesus let his followers take the blame and get executed for his actions?

Are you reading the same Bible that I read? The one that talks about 12 apostles, 10 of whom were martyred for the faith? Not to mention people like St. Stephen?

The same Bible that inspired a man named Tertullian, who said "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church"?

[marsh_of_mists]

I find it hard to keep from howling in laughter when people try to prove that the Catholic Church is flase using a Bible codified and declared infallible by the Catholic Church (well, except for the books the “reformers” cut out).

[HarleyD]

Plus, if you call in the next hour, we'll throw in a free set of attractive bobbleheads, suitable for home or car.

Drat!!! I'm too late.

[HarleyD]

(Well, I wanted to be a babe, anyway. Is that so wrong?)

I'm sure your husband things you're a "babe". Go ahead. Ask him. I'm sure I know the answer. ;O)

[Risky-Riskerdo]

Where do you see anything that indicates that it is a temporary condition...

Firstly, it is a given because Scripture is adamant that believers are to obey God above men, and that no man has absolute authority on earth as the popes of Rome tried to claim for themselves.

and that the bishop of Rome. And if you're right, that it only holds as long as the bishop of Rome is orthodox, then you are by that very fact saying that *SOMEONE* has to be judging the bishop of Rome heretical.

There were councils as well as bishops and others who judged Roman popes, rightly, as heretics.

You entirely miss the point of this passage, which is that the *Bishop of Rome* judges what is heretical....

Wrong. Never was and never will be.

not as long as he just happens to be orthodox, but because the apostolic tradition of Peter and Paul has been preserved there.

The Apostolic Tradition was recorded in the Scriptures, and was and is passed on to every genuine believer, so said 98% of the Church Fathers.

[Risky-Riskerdo]

unless you liked listening to a bunch of smart alex poli sci students drinking beer and cracking jokes.

So that's where the Friday Neeners Caucus got it from.

We were Friday through Thursday.(grin)

[Risky-Riskerdo]

That’s even sillier. If he doesn’t exist, why is he on any calendar other than ones like “The Simpsons” or “The Muppets?”

Maybe they had an open date to fill on the calendar. So "poof" Christopher the Magic Saint was invented as filler.

[Risky-Riskerdo]

Not that if would have done any good, unless you liked listening to a bunch of smart alex poli sci students drinking beer and cracking jokes. hehehe

That's a lie! I was never a poli sci student, I don't drink beer, and I swear that I was nowhere near the Cuban Embassy in Stockholm that whole time!

Were you a certain Sgt. Shultz on a certain TV show in a former life?

[Risky-Riskerdo]

The name you are searching for is Latter Day Saints, or LDS for short.

A Mormon by any other name is still a Mormon.